What's sad and frustrating is that some jerk writer will take this job, which will make other publications do the same thing. Some writers just have no shame, pride or sense of self worth. If writers would stop taking substandard pay, publications would pay more.

What's sad and frustrating is that some jerk writer will take this job, which will make other publications do the same thing. Some writers just have no shame, pride or sense of self worth. If writers would stop taking substandard pay, publications would pay more.

Have Fun,Jeff

That sounds like my younger son-in-law, except he has one immense sense of self-worth, though no pride or willingness to work or shame about it.

Right on Jeff! That's the problem. There's always gonna be inexperienced, naive, or desperate writers willing to fall for that crap. Unfortunately, freelancers don't have a union like the screen writers guild. And we all know what they were able to pull off. They pretty much shut down the business for months.

But then, you get what you pay for, and a lot of the writing out there these days is mediocre at best.

_________________Dan Heim, Desert Dweller
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." — Groucho Marx

This is probably some temp position where they have no intention of giving the writer any real opprotunity. These ads usually mean someone is falling short on a deadline and just wants to make it out alive.

Or they're desperate to make a cutback and would rather sacrifice quality. I'd say someone will take them up on it as bad as the economy is. That is sad. There is price gouging if consumers pay, but it's just reversed in cases like this. People aren't paid what they deserve.

This is probably some temp position where they have no intention of giving the writer any real opprotunity. These ads usually mean someone is falling short on a deadline and just wants to make it out alive.

Or they're desperate to make a cutback and would rather sacrifice quality. I'd say someone will take them up on it as bad as the economy is. That is sad. There is price gouging if consumers pay, but it's just reversed in cases like this. People aren't paid what they deserve.

Of course it's a temp position. It's freelance, and by definition, freelance is a job-by-job way of working.

I doubt it has much to do with deadlines. It's just another jerk who wants to get rich riding on other people's backs. They're also probably not making cutbacks. Their business plan almost certainly calls for cut rate writing--and everything else but the salaries of the founders.

I understand Dickens occasionally had to work for a penny a word: that might have been semi-sane in Victorian England, but it's total idiocy for any professional writer today.